What it achieves most plangently is a realistic, empathetic portrayal of a young man’s attempts at self-assertion, with all the pain, embarrassment, and missteps that go with it. The performances and mise-en-scene have a naturalistic quality.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 6, 2022

The film's somber subject matter is brightened by the crafty direction razor-sharp editing, snarky camera angles, close-up detail shots. And Raymond's charming innocence, nicely underplayed by novice actor Davies, will prompt more compassion than malice.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 26, 2022

This is not a feel-good movie. It is a unique effort to do something unusual with suburban pathos.

| Mar 22, 2022

Writer-director David O Russell's well-observed film captures the sullen defensiveness of adolescence, and finds humour and sensuality in strange places.

| Dec 14, 2017

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 7, 2011

A bitingly funny tale of frustrated sexuality.

| Original Score: A | Apr 9, 2007

David O. Russell's gleefully subversive family saga offers a twisted coming of age tale that begins realistically before pushing its characters over rhe edge into lunacy.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 13, 2007

Plays as a bad middle-class suburban joke that hits the right note between satire and being a shocker.

| Original Score: B | Dec 10, 2005

A very intriguing independent movie with stong performances.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 10, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 13, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 19, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 10, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 0/5 | Feb 22, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 2, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | May 20, 2003

Excellent art-house dark comedy with a strange, incestuous theme.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 19, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 24, 2003

An outrageous, assured debut from a talented new director.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 16, 2003

Quirky is too mild a word for it.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 5, 2002

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 25, 2002